Charles Banks Wilson

1918 – 2013

Henry Turkey Foot

Charles Banks Wilson (1918-2013) is a nationally known Oklahoma artist recognized for his contribution to the world of Indian art. Growing up with a blind grandmother, Wilson sought out the last of what he called, “the pure bloods,” the American Indian, and captured them forever in his lithographs and paintings. He is perhaps best known for his murals in the rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol and his portraits of Will Rogers. Trained at the Chicago Art Institute and a student of Thomas Hart Benton, Wilson is a Fellow of the International Institute of Arts & Letters, Geneva, Switzerland, a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Western Heritage Award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He has exhibited widely, including the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the Chicago Art Institute, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and the National Academy of Design. His paintings are in the permanent collections of the Stark Museum in Orange, Texas, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Smithsonian in Washington D. C. Shown is a lithograph signed in the lower right margin, “Charles Banks Wilson,” dated “81” and titled in the lower left margin, “Henry Turkey Toot and numbered 150.” 14” x 11”